Cocktail Chronicles
An excellent blog by a man who has more cocktail books than I thought were published.

cocktailnerd
Gabriel has crafted a fine site and shares some of my pain with a state-run liquor system. He also manages to post about 4000 times more than me, and it’s always interesting!

Dave’s Drinks
Anyone who posts about exotic cocktails makes it on this blogroll!

Days That End In “Y”
An all-around drinking blog that posts quality news on the world of spirits, beer, wine, gadgets… the list goes on, as do the posts, which are too numerous to count. “Updated frequently” would be an understatement.

Dr. Bamboo
A fellow Pennsylvanian with a penchant for art and fine cocktails.

Favorite Posts

Knowing that I would be assaulted this whole week by fine dining and complex, crazy cocktails, I wanted to start off on the right foot. That lead me to Yo Mama’s Bar and Grill, a small nook on St. Peter. Sparsely populated, I sat at the bar and opened the menu. That was a useless step, however, as I already knew what I was going to order. A peanut butter burger. That’s right. And it was so fricken’ delicious, I cannot even describe it… or the pool of butter forming a moat on my plate.

Keeping with the same theme I walked across the street to Pat O’Briens, which is a “multi-bar” of sorts. One offshoot gets you a baudy piano lounge, another a more traditional bar, and finally a beautiful outdoor patio with the obligatory flaming water fountain. Taken from Chuck, Char, Joe, and about 400 other people’s recommendations, I opted for a hurricane (pictured above). I knew going into the drink that it would be sickly sweet, packed with plenty of rum taken from below the bottom shelf, and absolutely delicious in an evil, anti-pompous sort of way. Basically, a cloyingly sweet chemical monstrosity of joy. The warnings / praise were spot on, and it was delicious…

Though, as I walked back to the Hotel Monteleone to write this, I got a yearning for something a little more authentic. So I’ll be stopping down at the carousel bar in a few minutes to get back on track. And now for a real Hurricane recipe:

Hurricane

2oz lemon juice

2oz passion fruit syrup

4oz dark Jamaican rum (Gosling’s)

Spin up with 6oz crushed ice for a scant 3 seconds. Dump into an appropriately large cup and garnish with lots of swords, angry pineapples, and whatever else suits your fancy at the moment.

From: Grog Log, Jeff “Beachbum” Berry

KP Questions

… you know, if I do questions with each post, this whole week is going to be a bit too much like class time with Kaiser Penguin. Perhaps I’ll just limit it to one per post in hopes of getting everyone to actually comment.

What is your favorite “shameful” drink that you would probably keep under wraps when hanging out with fellow cocktailians?

Beat me, flog me. This drink is wrong in so many ways, but I just love it.

Back in the day, I had perfected my Pina Colada recipe using Meyers’s Gold Rum, which is no longer made and hasn’t been for some time. In fact, I stopped drinking them when I couldn’t find Myers’s Gold. Now that I have a lot more rum knowledge, I may have to revisit the PC and find the perfect rum for it.

You won’t be seeing me drink one at Tales, but I have a soft spot for Captain Morgan and Coke. Two ingredients — both of low regard in the cocktail crowd — in an unimaginative, unchallenging highball format. Still, it hits the spot and gives me enough caffeine and sugar to stay away from the energy drink mixes.